Aatif and Hasib Mulla claim that the POTA court didn’t consider important evidence

The Bombay High Court yesterday admitted the appeal of two people convicted in the 2002-03 Mulund bombings. The convicts, in the application, claimed that a special court did not take important evidence supporting them into consideration and sentenced them to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Hasib Mulla and Aatif Mulla. File pics

The convicts — Aatif Mulla and Hasib Mulla, both residents of Padgha in Shahapur — approached the Bombay High Court for bail too while challenging the judgement of a special court for Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) given last month. Both of them have been punished under POTA and the Arms Act.

Three blasts had taken place in the city — one on December 6, 2002 at a McDonalds outlet near Mumbai Central station, another in Mulund on March 13, 2003, and the third on June 27, 2003 in Vile Parle. The blasts claimed 12 lives and injured 127 people.

The prosecution had told the special court that both of them had hatched a criminal conspiracy against the state government by committing bomb explosions. But when they could not prove their case, Aatif and Hasib were convicted for possession of an AK 56.

In their application to the HC, they claimed that the court had failed to take into consideration evidence admitted during cross-examination. The court had made several mistakes by taking into consideration unreliable and legally inadmissible evidence, their application, which was filed by their lawyer Mobin Solkar, further said. The bench of Justice N H Patil and A M Badar has scheduled the hearing for May 5 and asked the police to file a reply by then.

Apart from these, the POTA court had convicted eight more people including main conspirator former general secretary of SIMI Saquib Nachan and planter Muzamil Ansari and acquitted three due to lack of evidence.